Awful Announcing has learned that NBC’s plans for their inaugural year carrying Big Ten Football are coming together with the hiring of analyst Joshua Perry. Perry, a linebacker for Ohio State’s 2014 National Championship team, will join Maria Taylor, who has long been reported to be the host for the new studio production.
While a lot of details about the studio show are still being sorted out, we know that the studio show will be produced by NBC Senior Producer, Lindsay Schanzer. AA has also been told that the studio show will go on the road “many weeks” throughout the college football season, following the blueprint of College GameDay and more recently, Big Noon Kickoff.
Who will be joining Perry and Taylor is still in flux, but NBC is hoping to land Big Ten legend J.J. Watt. The future Hall of Famer is an obvious fit having played at Wisconsin and would likely have a significant role on Sunday Night Football as well. However, Watt is being courted by multiple networks and thus might not ultimately land at NBC. Another name in the mix is Michael Robinson, who has been an analyst for NFL Network and additionally worked with NBC on USFL broadcasts.
NBC also broadcasts Notre Dame home games but elected not to have a traditional studio show this past season. Instead, the network had Kathryn Tappen on site with rotating former Notre Dame players as well as a former player from whoever their opponent was that week. Tappen has been moved to Big Ten duties as a sideline reporter so it’s very possible NBC will look to have the new Big Ten studio crew pull double duty in certain weeks as well.
NBC’s Big Ten game is being branded as Big Ten Saturday Night and will showcase games in primetime similar to their NFL package. This week they announced Ohio State taking on Michigan State with a 7:30 PM ET kickoff. November night games almost never happen but will become a regular thing under NBC’s deal.
Perry joins NBC after an impressive run at Big Ten Network in which he stood out both as a studio analyst and a game analyst and was nominated for an Emmy for his work 2021. Perry also appears on ‘The Rally,’ which airs on Sinclair’s Bally Regional Sports Networks.
NBC’s actual game coverage staffing plans have been known for a while being reported back in January with Noah Eagle calling games and longtime ESPN veteran Todd Blackledge serving as the analyst, which the network later confirmed along with Tappen serving as the sideline reporter. As mentioned earlier, with Tappen now off of Notre Dame games it’s probably more likely than not that the Big Ten studio show will indeed be doing double duty when NBC has a doubleheader with Notre Dame games.
A lot of questions will still be answered in terms of NBC’s gameplan with doubleheaders, who else joins Perry and Taylor, and how often the show does go on the road. That said, there is a lot to like on how NBC’s Big Ten coverage is shaping up thus far.
